:: Bideford College Online :: Welcome To The History Department ::

We hope that these pages give you an insight into our philosophy and what we teach, as well as our extra-curricular programme.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or comments.
Thank you,

Mrs P Plummer

Head of History

pplummer@bideford.devon.sch.uk | Contact Form

History is alive and all around us- a living, breathing subject. At Bideford, we believe that History lessons should reflect this, making learning informative, but also relevant and fun. It should be a gym for the mind, through the development of skills of enquiry, independent thought, analysis and critical thinking. Thereby, encouraging all students to think.

History offers opportunities for pupils to:

Learn about the past in Britain and the wider world
Consider how past influences the present
Find out about what past societies were like, how these societies organised themselves and what beliefs and cultures influenced people's actions.
Develop a chronological framework
See the diversity of human experienced and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society
Reflect on their personal choices, attitudes and values
Use evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions
Research, sift through evidence and argue a point of view.
(National Curriculum, 2000)
Through all of this, we aim to have all our pupils make their personal best better.

The History Department comprises four full time members of staff.
Member	Specialism	Historical figure with whom we identify…
Mrs P Plummer (Head of Department)	Contemporary History
Mr B Cook	Modern History and Politics
Ms C Davey	Modern World History
Mr D Munro	Contemporary History

At GCSE and A level, our Exam board is Edexcel. This is to ensure continuity through the key stages.

GCSE:
History B- this is a SHP (Schools History Project) Style course, which looks at depth and development studies. We also have a source evaluation exam and a controlled assessment unit.
All exams from 2012 will be terminal.

A level:
Year 12: Twentieth century China and Late Tudor/Early Stuart Britain.
Year 13: USA 1917-1954 and a coursework unit on Russia.

Key Stage Three:
At present, we teach a thematic course, with each year group following the same themes:

Term 1: Social history
Term 2: Political history
Term 3: World history and Empire

Year 7: Changing Lives, The Rulers and Early Empires
Year 8: Changing Minds, The Ruled and Britain's early Empire
Year 9: Moving Stories, Conflict and Co-Operation and the World after 1945.

Homeworks:
We set half termly homeworks, one each half term, six in total.
These can all be found on the schools Central Resource Library and on Frog in the year group under History's subject area.
Markschemes can also be found in those locations.

Retention has improved- we have more students studying History now than ever before, with many continuing with the subject at A level and going on to read it at university. In recent years, we have had students go on to Exeter, UWE, Leicester, and Sussex.

Results are good at KS3 and at A level with students performing better than expected. At GCSE, students are showing steady improvement.

In History, we gain a high number of A/A* grades, with a number of students in the past two years gaining 100/100 on their module papers at GCSE and at A level.

We have been developing classroom and learning resources with the Darwin Correspondance Project, based at Cambridge University. As a result of our input, the project has developed a series of lessons on How dangerous Darwin's ideas were to the society around him.

Where possible the department always endeavour to run trips outside of school or get outside speakers in.
This is part of pur philosophy of wanting to bring History to life.

We try to run a foreign trip for Year 11, 12 and 13 students in July.
In previous years, we have visited Rome, Poland, Berlin and Greece (please see our blog for details of this).
We also try to run a visit to France for Year 9 students to visit Normandy or the WW1 Battlefields.

We also run a Debating Society on Monday lunchtimes, as well as a Sixth Form Debating Tournament and taking part in competitions, such as the ESU Mace.

We actively encourage students to take up opportunities such as the Lessons from Auschwitz project, run by the Holocaust Educational Trust, A level and GCSE lectures, theatre productions and essay writing competitions.

History Resources

www.bideford.devon.sch.uk/blogs/history- All the latest news & stories

www.thehistoryfaculty.org - The extended essay: How to construct an historical investigation pt1

www.schoolhistory.co.uk- a wealth of information for most of the topics covered. Good medicine revision section and games!

www.historymad.com - Another fun and exciting site with games and activities to help you learn and revise.

www.bbc.co.uk/history & www.channel4.com/history - both of these sites cover the programmes which come on, often having good sections tied in with the programme e.g. Worst Jobs in History had an excellent section on the C4 site. Useful for additional research and good links. BBC has good galleries for images.

www.learningcurve.pro.gov.uk - The National Archive site. Excellent pathways and exhibitions, as well as on-line activities which can help you develop your evidence skills.

www.victoriantimes.org - A very good site, specifically for Victorian history- covers 6 different aspects. Useful for GCSE.

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk - A useful all round research tool.

www.horrible-histories.co.uk - As you have probably guessed, the site serving Terry Leary's popular books. Lots of blood, guts and gore… as well as fascinating facts to annoy your teachers with!

www.glam.ac.uk/hass - Online History lectures from the Faculty Of Humanities and Social Sciences @ Glamorgan University

Politics

www.tutor2u.com- useful powerpoints and quizzes to test your understanding. Sections on British and American politics.

www.parliament.uk/commons/hsecom.htm - The House of Commons website. Useful information about the workings of the Houses. You can also watch live debate.

www.bbc.co.uk- The politics sections has simple language and has good links to party websites.

Forums

History Forum - Login

Government & Politics Forum - Login


Back To The Top	Frog Learning Platform